For the Everyday Ordinary...

"Normal Day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all in the world, for your return." ~ Mary Jean Iron

Monday, January 16, 2012

What do to with all the stories...all the pictures???

I used to scrapbook - years ago. However, my pages began to look more like mixed media art journals and I was frustrated by how mine never looked pretty like the magazines and they were big, chunky pages that make my scrapbooks super bulky. I felt like I was doing it "wrong". I was also frustrated by how my pages never seemed to capture the story - just the event, but none of my feelings or emotions about it. It became...boring...to me. =(

So I just quit with the scrapbooking, but have saved and continue to write my "stories" and memories, organize my photos and dream of one day putting it all together in some kind of form or fashion.

Last year when I began the Finding Photo Freedom class at Big Picture Classes, I heard about Lain Ehmann from Layoutaday.com . Right after Finding Photo Freedom, Lain offered a class at BCP called The Mother LOAD. I was intrigued, but did not feel ready as I was still working on my digital workflow and organizing photographs. But I told myself "someday"...

Well, "someday" has arrived - and much sooner than I thought it would. However, I decided that now is as good as any time and I'm just going to jump in. Even if I don't complete all of the layouts for the challenge, I will at least have done more than I've done in years - and that is a GOOD thing. A GOOD ENOUGH thing. And, hopefully, it will give me momentum to keep going. I mentioned it to my husband last night and he said, "go for it!" How can I turn down that kind of support? =)

So, what am I talking about? What does Lain offer?

Since I've never taken the class before, I can only share what others have said about the class and what Lain herself shares about it. LOAD stands for "Layout A Day" and that is exactly what is planned for the entire month of February. Since it is a leap year, we will have 29 days of layouts! She will send out prompts, there will be videos and guest speakers and a forum dedicated to all the LOADers - all sharing inspiration. It is a great way to use up your "stash" (and for someone who has not scrapbooked in years, I have a HUGE stash that I can't wait to dig into).

This is my year to get a handle on my photos, to begin to dig into my stories and finally get them told so that my family can remember or know for the first time that we have a rich and lovely history and funny/lovely/sad/inspiring stories to be shared. I want to leave a legacy to the next generations - I want them to know I was here ~ that I lived and what my life was like; who I was and who they are and where we all came from and how we are all connected. This is important to me - as important as my art. It IS part of my art.

So, check it out! It is super affordable and I know it will be super inspirational! Click on the button below for more information about it:

2 comments:

This is a brilliant idea! I love the concept of scrapbooks :) I almost feel like blogging is a sort of scrapbook. Only my blog is art centered... so it's a scrapbook on that. But a hard copy of something is so completely superior. To hold something tangible is just beautiful. I wish you luck on this endeavour. I am certain you will create wonderful things :)

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